Poetical Attempts by Hugh Porter

Below is a poem entitled 'To Disappointment' by Hugh Porter (c1780-?) the Bard of Moneyslane, taken from his one published volume of poetry, Poetical Attempts, (1813). Moneyslane is a townland in County Down, near Ballyroney. Porter was a poor linen weaver but, unlike most of the other Ulster-Scots folk poets, he had a patron, the local Church of Ireland rector, Rev Thomas Tighe. Tighe had links to many well-known literary figures of the day and another of his protégés was Patrick Brontë, father of the famous Brontë sisters.